1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pointing device for electronic equipment, more particularly to a pointing device for controlling movement of a cursor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional pointing devices for use in portable electronic equipment, such as a notebook computer, an ultra mobile personal computer (UMPC), a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a global positioning system (GPS), can be generally classified into touch screens, touch pads, track balls, pointing sticks, etc.
However, the aforesaid conventional pointing devices have their respective drawbacks in application. For instance, touch screens are relatively costly, and are quite inconvenient to use if the user wants to make an input via keys or buttons since the user needs to operate the keys or buttons and a stylus interchangeably. Touch pads and track balls occupy a relatively large amount of space in application, and are therefore not suitable for use in relatively small electronic equipment, such as UMPCs, PDAs, and GPSs.
Pointing sticks can overcome the drawbacks associated with the aforesaid pointing devices. However, since a pointing stick generally stick out from the cuter surface of the electronic equipment for operation by the user and cannot be stowed within the electronic equipment, when the electronic equipment is being carried around by the user, the protruding pointing stick may undesirably catch other objects, thus rendering carrying of the electronic equipment inconvenient. Inadvertent actuation of the electronic equipment may also result. In addition, the pointing stick generally requires the arrangement of a button to perform switching between a cursor mode and a scroll mode to enable the pointing stick to scroll web pages by moving up and down under the scroll mode. Such switching actions render the operation of the pointing stick inconvenient.